[CHAP. XXXVIII.

to defend the State, but also for that material aid which the people have placed at your command.

The Provisional Army in the field for the defense of Texas being considered entirely inadequate for the purpose, I made a requisition upon His Excellency Governor Lubbock for 10,000 men. The people have generally responded cheerfully to his call, and, as the result, there have been organized into companies, and transferred to service of the Confederate States, about 8,000 men, half of whom are cavalry. After five months of constant labor, these troops have just reached a degree of efficiency to warrant high expectations as to their success as an army.

In harmony with the law of the State, they have been organized from companies into battalions, and from battalions into regiments.

Their officers are entirely of their own selection, and they have been massed with a view to their neighborhood with each other. My effort and desire have been to use all the resources at my command in promoting their comfort and rendering them efficient. They are now being concentrated for active operations, should the enemy invade the State.

On my arrival in Texas, I found the scarcity of suitable arms one of the greatest impediments to the organization of an efficient army.

My efforts have, therefore, been directed toward obtaining a supply from abroad. The small supply which the authorities at Richmond were able to furnish me, on my departure from the capital (2,000), was placed in the hands of the troops immediately, and strong, inducements were held out to private parties to embark in the enterprise of introducing a supply. After repeated failures and heavy losses to contractors, two shipments of 10,000 Enfield rifles each arrived off the Rio Grande. The first lot was seized entire by the French, and, of the second, but, 4,200 were secured, the balance also falling into their hands, the officers making the seizure claiming that the arms were intended for the Mexicans. In addition to the 4,200 secured from these cargoes, about 1,200 more are on their way from the Rio Grande, which, in addition to those manufactured by the State, will be ample to arm all the troops now in the field without arms. Enterprising and patriotic men are still engaged in the endeavor to import arms and munitions of war, and I hope ere long to have a sufficient supply on hand to place a gun in the hands of every man in the State capable of bearing arms upon any emergency.

It is but my plain duty to inform Your Excellency that without the aid of State troops now in the field, I have but little hope of my ability to defend any large portion of Texas against the foe.

If, after the months of arduous toil spent in organizing these troops, they are to be disbanded just as the campaign ripens, the country need not expect to be spared the scenes of desolation which are presented in Missouri, Arkansas, and part of Louisiana.

With every man of the 10,000 called for in the field, and with all the minute men who can be rallied at the approach of the foe added to the troops of the line, the task before me is Herculean, but trusting in the favor of Providence, which thus far has attended our cause in Texas, and to the valor of Texans, which has made the name of Texan glorious- if these are given me, I shall attempt it, determined to achieve success, if energy, devotion, and sacrifice can accomplish it.

Disband these troops, composed as they are of the best material of the country-men whose property and every interest are at stake in the war-and you not only take from the army left in the field auxiliary and reserve force, but you destroy the morale and efficiency of the rest; for the presence of these men in the field has silenced the clamor of the demagogue, who would make the soldier believe that he is to toil and